If you got an message about this story being updated this note is for you: I'm adding chapter 14 and 15 at the same time. So if you're checking in after my months of absence, make sure you read chapter 14 too. It's also just been posted.

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Chapter 15

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Rick exhaled and tapped his foot impatiently as he waited in the basement for Morty to get whatever bullshit he'd come back here for. Rick couldn't imagine any material items would be worth returning to this place, but he had played along anyway and was already regretting it.

Morty hadn't wanted him to portal directly into the room for fear that someone in the family would see him and ask questions, but there was a very simple solution to that possibility - his laser gun. These people didn't deserve to live anyway after how they'd treated this kid. Rick knew in his heart that he wouldn't feel an ounce of remorse if he turned all three of them to ash.

Rick listened carefully as he looked around the basement. At the moment, he could hear quiet movement and conversation from somewhere upstairs. That meant at least two of Morty's former foster-family members were here, talking to each other. It didn't sound heated, so Morty wasn't involved, which meant Rick could stay put. If the kid managed to get what he'd come for and made it back down into the basement without conflict, Rick was somewhat okay with leaving the family here and allowing them to live. It seemed Morty didn't want to resort to violence, so Rick supposed he'd hold back if he could.

The basement, was cold, dark, and almost felt wet - like going outside in the winter after a rain storm when things were still misty. This was the basement where Morty's foster-father made him sleep, according to the boy. Rick frowned as he looked around. These people fucking sucked.

He looked up at the ceiling as he could swear he heard light footfalls going upstairs. He wondered if that was the sound of Morty's feet. He thought the kid had already made it up there, but maybe he'd gone slowly to avoid detection and was only just now making it up there.

More low voices could be heard next, seemingly coming from upstairs. Rick furrowed his brow. It seemed someone was up there with Morty. It didn't sound violent though, and Morty had seemed to feel it was important for Rick not to be seen, so for the moment, the man stayed put.

It wasn't until he heard the foster-brother yell out to his parents that Rick started to get worried. "Mom, Dad! Morty's back. He's up here in his room!" Rick heard the kid call out, followed by heavy footsteps leading upstairs.

"God damn it," Rick grumbled to himself, feeling around in his lab coat for his laser gun. He wasn't going to use it if he didn't think he had to... Maybe he'd even stay down here a minute longer to be sure before barging upstairs, but he had a pretty good idea these people weren't just going to let this go. If they'd force the boy to stand half-naked in a cold corner and beat him with a belt for not doing dishes, what would they do to him after he'd seemingly ran away for a full day? Maybe they'd even know that the kid who'd attacked him was dead in two pieces in that construction zone. Maybe they'd think Morty somehow murdered him...

Rick crept slowly up the basement stairs and held his ear up to the door, listening carefully and trying to judge whether or not Morty needed him to kill these people.

He heard more voices, but didn't act until they dissolved into actual screaming, which included Morty's cries for help specifically to Rick.

Without another thought, Rick swung the basement's door open and headed upstairs.

"Who the hell are you?" A woman's angry, confused voice asked as Morty's foster-mother and brother came into Rick's view.

Rick didn't have time to give an answer and didn't feel he owed her one anyway. He raised his laser gun up, fired a shot, and then turned toward the brother, firing one at him too. In turn, they each dissolved into nothing.

Next, he followed the sounds of a struggle and angry words coming from behind a closed bedroom door. He pulled the door open in time to see Morty's foster-father looming over to boy, who was facing away from the door, curled up on the floor, with his pants and underwear bunched around his ankles and his t-shirt securing his wrists behind his back. The boy's foster-father had his arm raised up, threatening to hit the kid with his belt. It looked like he'd already hit Morty a few times, as fresh, angry red marks stood out against his otherwise smooth skin.

With a small growl in his throat, Rick fired his laser gun at the man's back, turning him to ash before the guy ever knew the older man was there.

For a long few seconds, the room was filled with complete silence. Morty seemed to try to make himself smaller as he refused to turn toward Rick. He was virtually quiet and still but was breathing in shaking, cautious breaths, almost as though scared to breathe loud enough to be heard. Even so, his breaths were trembling and underscored by soft whimpers.

Rick knelt down next to him, putting his hand lightly on Morty's arm and frowning down at him.

Morty shrunk down away from his touch, but kept his eyes squeezed tightly closed. "Dad, please don't," the boy begged in a breathless, frightened voice.

"Morty, it's me," Rick told him.

"R-rick?" Morty seemed to relax slightly as his tear-filled eyes blinked open.

"Yeah... Hold still," Rick suggested as he worked on untangling the boy's shirt from around his wrists. He pulled the garment off of his arms and then gently grasped Morty's hands, pulling the kid to his feet.

Morty's lower lip trembled and tears welled up in his eyes as he stared up at Rick, who couldn't help but to take in his injuries, several of which were actually bleeding. He had a harsh bleeding welt stretched from the back of one shoulder, around to the front, and over his collar bone. He had a similar mark across his ribs, curling around toward his back. Another very painful looking welt, bleeding in a few places ran from the boy's thigh, up over his pelvis, and toward his belly button.

"I think he hit me a lot harder than before," Morty spoke in a tiny, trembling voice that was almost a whisper as he moved his hands down to cover himself. He moaned softly, but didn't move to pull up his pants. He just stood there, wincing, biting his lower lip, and squeezing his eyes shut as though he was in the worst pain of his life.

"I've got an ointment that'll help, but you can't use it all the time. It has side effects," Rick offered, feeling around in his lab coat for his emergency supply of the concoction.

Morty's eyes widened and he took a step back. "Side effects?" he whispered.

"Only if you over-use it. It'll be fine just this once. All it does it make you lose a lot of feeling wherever you use it and helps repair the skin five to ten times faster than it would heal naturally. If you use it too much, it numbs you for longer, possibly forever if you really overdo it. You should be fine just using it the one time," Rick explained.

"O-okay," Morty reluctantly agreed with a shaking breath and a small sniffling sound.

Rick put his hand on Morty's shoulder and led him toward his bed, gently sitting the boy down on the mattress and squatting in front of him. He threw the kid's t-shirt in his lap to cover him up - mostly for Morty's own sake, since Rick didn't necessarily get hung up on nudity. He could tell Morty did, even if the boy did seem a little too traumatized to put care into keeping himself covered up at the moment.

Rick raised up the tube of ointment so Morty could see it. "Hold out your hand. I'll get the ones on your back," he offered.

Morty raised up a shaking hand and allowed Rick to squirt some of the substance onto his fingertips. He stared at Rick with wide eyes as though wanting to witness the man's use of the product before trying it himself.

With a tired exhale, Rick carefully leaned around to see the boy's back. He rubbed some of the substance along one of the deeper cuts made by his foster-father's belt, across his back and around a few inches over his ribs. "Feel any better?" Rick wondered, looking at Morty with a raised brow.

"I- I t-think so..." Morty answered in a tiny voice. He moved his own fingers down to his thigh, awkwardly slathering the sticky ointment there with a hand shaking so badly he could barely even manage to keep the stuff over the cut rather than getting it all over the skin next to it.

Rick frowned at him, wondering if he should just do this himself. As long as Morty wouldn't make it weird, Rick could do the same. He considered himself very logical and didn't get offended by people seeing or touching parts of his body that most considered 'private.' Judging by Morty's reaction to being stripped down by his foster-parents as a punishment, however, Morty probably didn't feel the same.

"You want me to help you?" Rick finally asked.

Morty swallowed nervously.

"You can trust me," Rick promised him. "About this anyway. I'm a deceitful motherfucker when it serves my purpose, but I'm no creep. I'll only help you if you want me to."

Nodding carefully, Morty swallowed and kept his nervous stare firmly focused on his grandfather's eyes.

Rick stared back. This kid was much less shy about this than Rick would have guessed the boy would be back when he saw all the Mortys at the Council of Ricks. Seeing the abuse the kid had suffered, Rick had assumed the boy would be very difficult to get close to or even talk to, but Morty was staring so intently at Rick's eyes as the man tended to the boy's injuries. Rick had expected Morty might look away, ashamed that he was accepting help from a man he really didn't know. He even half-expected the boy to flinch away, possibly scream and refuse help all together, but maybe his completely still posture and unwavering gaze was more due to paranoia and fear than anything else. Perhaps Morty didn't trust Rick enough to allow himself the comfort of looking away. His stare was so intent, in fact that it almost made Rick himself uncomfortable.

"This okay?" Rick asked as he moved his hand toward Morty's injury. The way the child's foster-father had struck him caused this particular welt to run quite a long length across Morty's skin, including a few inches of its expanse running very close to his groin. Rick didn't mind helping him, but was surprised his grandson would allow it after everything he'd been through.

The boy nodded, but didn't speak as he maintained eye contact. Rick could feel Morty shaking slightly under his touch and the poor kid seemed to be making such an effort to remain perfectly still that he may have even been holding his breath.

Morty stared at him with huge, wide eyes as Rick carefully moved his fingers over the welt on Morty's thigh, rubbing the clear ointment up over his pelvis and across his stomach until the entire injury was covered.

"Your foster-father was a huge bastard, Morty," Rick told him as he carefully covered the other injuries in the ointment as he had the first two. "Nobody's ever going to do something like this to you ever again. I promise you that."

Rick stood back up and reached down to help Morty stand as well as soon as all of his injuries had been tended to.

He expected that Morty would first want to re-dress himself, but that's not what happened. Before Rick had a chance to take a step back and give his grandson some space, he felt Morty's slim arms wrap around his waist as the boy buried his face in Rick's shirt and began to sob.

"Uh..." Rick hesitated and looked around the room, not sure if he was looking for a way out or just trying to distract himself. He wasn't sure how to deal with this traumatized kid. This wasn't something he was good at.

As Morty continued loudly sobbing, Rick put his hand carefully against the boy's back, holding him as close as he felt the kid wanted him to as he looked around what had been his grandson's bedroom for however many years he'd been forced to live here. It looked even more run-down and pathetic in person than it had through the goggles. It was so small. He looked back down toward his grandson, who was hugging him tightly and sobbing rather loudly.

"You're okay..." Rick said awkwardly.

"It hurt so much," Morty's shaking voice rattled off between breathless, heartbroken sobs. "I begged him not to... He was so mad... He said..." Morty interrupted himself with another shaking sob. "He said he would-" He let out another trembling, tear-filled breath.

"It's alright," Rick assured him as he moved his hand carefully over Morty's back. "He's not going to do anything to you."

"I said he was being a creep," Morty went on. "I said he was being like a sexual pervert creep... And he said-" the boy let out another choked sob.

Rick shook his head. "It doesn't matter now. He's gone."

"I told him normal parents don't- don't make... their kids..." He choked out another breathless cry. "They don't make th-their kids undress li-like he and mom do... that he was being a pervert... and he said... h-he said if I was gonna call him that, then he'd do it f-for real. That he'd do a sexual assault thing to me... and I didn't know if he was really gonna... but he said he would," Morty's voice dwindled down into a near-whisper by the end of this explanation.

"He won't though," Rick assured him. "You're with me now. No one's gonna do that kinda shit to you anymore."

"You were right, Rick," Morty sniffed between sobs. "We shouldn't have bothered staying hidden. Now they know you're here anyway."

Rick looked around the room. No one knew he was here, because everyone else who had been in the house was dead now. He was surprised Morty still thought someone was left in the house. Did he just think his foster-family was willing to let Rick, who was a stranger to them, do whatever he wanted? Where the fuck did the kid think his foster-family was right now? Just chilling in the hallway, totally cool with Rick coming in out of nowhere?

"Th-they'll follow us... What'll we do?" Morty whimpered and hugged Rick tighter.

"No one's gonna follow us, Morty," Rick promised. "It's just you and me from now on. No one's gonna come after us, because no one but us is even here. It's just us."

Rick felt Morty's shoulders trembling as the boy continued hiding his face from the world - even though the world wasn't even looking.

"You're alright, Morty. I should have come up here sooner..." Rick shook his head. He really should have. As soon as he heard the foster-brother going upstairs, Rick should have stepped in. "But you're okay now. They won't hurt you ever again. I made sure of it."

"A-are they gone?" Morty sniffed, but didn't let go of Rick until the man practically pried the boy's arms off of him.

Rick carefully knelt down, pulling Morty's underwear and pants back up since it seemed Morty was too preoccupied to do so himself. He then placed his hands gently on the boy's shoulders and looked into his wide, frightened eyes. "They're gone," Rick promised him.

"D-did you send them to another dimension or something?" Morty wondered as he looked around the room nervously.

"Or something," Rick smirked and shrugged.

"W-what do you mean?" Morty frowned.

"They're gone," Rick clarified. "Actually gone... from existence. As in, they do not exist anymore. Anywhere. Not in this dimension or any other. Laser gun. Turned 'em to ash."

Morty's mouth dropped open. "W-what?" He grimaced and swallowed, shrinking down slightly away from Rick's touch. "Y-you killed them?"

"They deserved it," Rick assured him. "Look what they did to you, Morty."

Morty frowned and looked down. "It would've only hurt for a little while..."

"And I was kinder to them by making their deaths quick," Rick assured the boy. "Even though I shouldn't have even granted them that degree of mercy. Should have made 'em die slowly. I was more merciful to them than they were to you."

"I guess I just don't like people dying." Morty sighed. "Even if they were mean to me."

"Well I love it." Rick shrugged. "Nothing's more satisfying than killing a child-abusing piece of shit."

Morty laughed a nervous, rather forced-sounding laugh and then looked down at his feet.

With a loud sigh, Rick clapped his hand gently over Morty's shoulder. "Well, I'm now responsible for four deaths in this dimension, and they're all connected to you... so we might want to get out of here."

"Yeah," Morty breathed out a nervous breath and then started collecting some items off the floor. Rick noticed him piling drawings, a stuffed animal, a plastic toy ship, and some coins into a small shoe box.

Some of the coins had been scattered around the floor. Rick reached down and picked one up, turning it over in his hands. "These are Flurbos," Rick noted with a frown. Earth didn't use this currency. "How did you get these?"

Morty reached out his small hand and picked up the coin out of Rick's palm. "You- I mean my grandpa left them behind when he died. He left a lot of stuff behind, but I couldn't take much. My other grandparents tried to help me choose good mementos from my family right after I came home for the first time after the accident. I guess they knew I was never going back there. I didn't know."

"They dead too?" Rick wondered.

Morty shook his head and shrugged his arms through his shirt sleeves and pulled the garment down over his head. "No. I mean, I don't think so at least. I haven't seen them in a long time."

"Assholes." Rick frowned. "Your dad's Jerry, right?" he asked.

Morty nodded.

"Figures," Rick scoffed. "Anyone who'd raise Jerry to be the low-life piece of human excrement-"

"Hey!" Morty interrupted. "He's my dad. Don't talk about him like that. If my mom died in your universe before Summer or I were ever born, did you even know my dad?"

"He dated Beth when they were in high school. Dumbest little fuckin' nerd motherfuckin' kid I've ever met. He had some kinda dumb obsession with fucking Star Wars, like real space travel wasn't interesting enough for him."

"Did he get to travel through space like you?" Morty wondered.

Rick shrugged. "No."

"Then Star Wars was the best he could have," Morty suggested. "I barely remember him, but what I do remember is good stuff. I think about him, and I'm not sure why, but the thought of my dad makes me feel safe and happy. Same with my mom and sister and you- I mean... the, uh... The other Rick."

"Your Rick made you feel safe and happy?" Rick frowned.

"Sure. He was really nice, I think. It's hard to remember, but I remember other people from when I was young, and I don't feel that way about everyone. The first foster family I lived with, I don't remember all that well either, but I know thinking of them makes me feel anxious," the boy explained. "So I'm not really sure what Rick was like, but my fuzzy memories of him make me feel like things were good."

Rick nodded. He wondered if he would have been a kinder grandfather if he'd known this kid and his sister for longer. The Ricks at the Council of Ricks certainly didn't seem like caring grandparents.

"I guess things are finally gonna be good again," Morty smiled up at him.

Rick stared back at the kid. Surely he was nothing good for this kid compared to this other Rick who made the boy actually feel safe. Things in Rick's life were never safe. "Morty, if you're gonna go on adventures with me, I don't know if you're gonna be feeling safe ever again."

"Sure I will," Morty disagreed. "I already do."

Rick groaned. "Don't do that, Morty... I'm not that kind of grandpa. I'm the kind who child protective services would probably step in and take you from me if they knew how I was."

"You don't have to be perfect. You just have to do what's right, and you do. Nobody else has ever stood up for me like you did," Morty told him.

Rick put the coordinates back to his apartment into his portal gun and fired it ahead, gesturing for Morty to go through first and then following him. "I'm not the best poster-boy for standing up for anyone but myself, Morty."

"You cut a guy in half, Rick," Morty reminded him. "All to stand up for me. You lasered my foster-family to death because they were hurting me."

Rick laughed and put his arm around Morty's shoulders. "Well..." He shrugged.

"It's okay. You don't have to think you're good, because I know you are," Morty told him as he and Rick sat down on the couch in Rick's living room.

Rick shrugged and picked up the television remote. "Well, whatever you say... I mean, you'll see. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Morty smirked and scooted closer to Rick. "Thanks for rescuing me from them."

Rick stared ahead at the television. He didn't like talking about emotional things. Not unless he was really drunk. So he changed the subject. "Wait 'til you see the kind of tv channels I get, Morty. I invented an inter-dimensional cable box, so this'll blow your fuckin' mind."

"What's that mean? Inter-dimensional cable box?" Morty wondered with furrowed brows and a frown.

"Television from every conceivable reality. From dimensions you could barely even fucking imagine," Rick explained.

"Like where actors who died are still alive and stuff?" Morty's eyebrows rose and he looked excited. "And like where they made sequels to stuff we didn't get sequels of here?"

"That, and even better. Or worse, I guess, depending on how you look at it. You'll see." Rick nodded toward the screen, silently requesting that Morty shut up and watch.

"Two crunchy tacos for the price of one," an announcer's overly dramatic voice spoke from the television speakers as images of tacos flashed across the screen. Morty glanced toward Rick with a frown, but then looked back at the screen without saying anything. Rick could tell the boy was confused and couldn't see how this was different than what he considered regular television.

"It was an ordinary Tuesday afternoon when Splargh took his two Noops coins down to the taco shed. At least he thought it was an ordinary Tuesday. When he looked in the bag that was a bag of tacos that he thought was a bag of one taco, he saw he had two tacos instead. Two for the price of one-style," the announcer went on.

Morty looked up at Rick again. "Is this an ad? Like... a-are they trying to tell us... You know... that tacos are on sale at this place?"

"Shh," Rick nodded back toward the screen. "I've been dying to see this. I might make a special trip to Noopslarb just to see this shit."

"He didn't even pay for two, but he got 'em. Like a taco Tuesday miracle, but it gets weirder. It was actually Wednesday the whole time. Taco Bell: The Movie. Coming this fall," the dramatic voice concluded.

Morty exhaled loudly and looked up at Rick like the man had just made the dumbest joke he'd ever heard.

"What?" Rick shrugged, turning the channel again.

"I feel like you're messing with me. None of that made sense," Morty frowned.

"Sure it did," Rick scoffed. "Taco Bell: The Movie. Based on the show."

Morty leaned his head against Rick's shoulder and looked toward the screen as Rick flipped through the channels.

"They're walking on their hands," Morty laughed as he stared at the television screen.

"Everyone in that dimension does," Rick explained.

Morty looked skeptical up at Rick and then back at the screen. "Is this a joke though? Like seriously? I mean, people could walk on their hands... Like anyone could learn that."

"Could anyone learn this?" Rick wondered, flipping the channel again to a Law and Order episode where the detectives had their eyes on stalks above their heads. Besides for their appearance, the show was extremely serious."

"Rick, I don't get it," Morty shrugged as he snuggled up closer to his grandfather and hugged the man's arm. "Is it a comedy?"

Rick shook his head. "That's just what people look like there, Morty. You're about to see so much than what was on that little world you were stuck in up until now. This is only the beginning."

Morty smiled and watched as Rick continued turning the channels, stopping on the ones he thought the boy would think were funny or the most absurd. Rick had started this endeavor hoping to gain an accomplice to help him on his missions, but he'd gotten so much more instead - so much that it was almost scary how grateful he felt for the company of a kid he didn't even know existed at the beginning of this week.

"They're like humans with beaks!" Morty gasped and pointed excitedly at the screen. "Oh my god, Rick! And the birds have human noses!"

Rick smiled and put his arm around Morty's shoulders. He was really going to enjoy introducing his grandson to everything the boy never knew existed. From here on out, neither of them was going to be on his own anymore. They each had a family now, and no matter how small a family, it was all either of them needed.

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The End.